CONCACAF releases Champions League quarterfinals schedule

The Houston Dynamo will kick off the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.

CONCACAF announced Wednesday the quarterfinal schedule of the current Champions League competition, and the Dynamo will host Herculez Gomez and Santos Laguna at BBVA Compass Stadium on March 5 in the first leg of their series. The decisive leg will take place on March 13 in Mexico.

The other two MLS clubs still in the tournament will play as visitors in the first games of their respective series. The Seattle Sounders face Tigres UANL on March 6 and the LA Galaxy will battle Costa Rican side Herediano a day later.

I think the favorites to advance here are Santos, Los Angeles, Monterrey and UANL Tigres. Both Seattle and Houston have the most difficult match-ups, and their match-ups will be even more difficult because Liga MX starts in January and their teams will be in mid-season form, whereas MLS teams will only be a week into their league.

Expect Herediano to put it hard to LA Galaxy. They are just coming off losing the title here in Costa Rica, and will see this as a chance of getting some redemption. Galaxy are still the clear favorites, just don’t expect them to win in without sweating a lot of work in the field.

LA’s schedule is lined up perfectly to advance past the quarterfinals this season, unlike last season. Getting the home opener out of the way first, then playing their first CCL game latter in the week, and have a week 2 bye is really going to set them up nicely to get into the next round. I’m glad Herediano was so accommodating.

Anyone traveling to Mexico or Central America for the away legs? I’m trying to convince my wife that Heredia is a beautiful place to celebrate our five year anniversary, and if we happen to catch a futbol match while we’re there, so be it.

You could go to any other point of Costa Rica, it will be at most three hours away from the stadium. I’m not even sure if the match will be at Heredia they could use the National Stadium since it has more capacity, Anyway, Costa Rica is very small, don’t limit your options to just Heredia, there are even some really nice beach hotels that are fairly close to the central area, if you don’t mind spending a couple hours in the road to see the match. BTW, that hotel CSD posted looks really nice, that is a quite beautiful area.

MLS have no rhymth of competition (fitness issues), some players gone from the teams, low salary cap, new players haven’t gel with their teams etc…I sadly MLS Front Office don’t really don’t help these teams that are completing for MLS and given poor marketing image for MLS.

Why is this schedule being re-released. It was posted on the Concacaf web site for months now, it doesn’t look like they made any changes, except to add team names, times and venues. The dates were set along time ago. The Galaxy new months ago when the quarters would be held and planned accordingly.